COLOUR UNION™ INSTALLATION

COLOUR UNION™ INSTALLATION

COLOUR UNION™ INSTALLATION

Location: Iain Dawson Gallery, SydneyType: Solo ExhibitionYear: 2011

COLOUR UNION™ INSTALLATION

Location: Iain Dawson Gallery, SydneyType: Solo ExhibitionYear: 2011

COLOUR UNION™

solo exhibition

This body of work explores the alienation and contemporary melancholy of the individual in relation to the constructed images of branding, marketing and advertising used in the service of big business to promote consumerism and conspicuous consumption.

Madeline Levine has criticized the increased dominance of consumerism especially within Western culture for creating “a shift away from values of community, spirituality, and integrity, and toward competition, materialism and disconnection.” [1]. Consumerism’s constant and relentless message to devour ever more products and services has created an emotional abyss within culture and a fractured sense of self within the individual.

This body of work uses the language of fashion and advertising: the models, scale, layout and composition but subverts them to illuminate the contemporary melancholy, alienation and detachment that lie behind the glossy veneer of consumerism. Advertising has become increasingly sophisticated and used to target niche demographics. Its appeal lies in encouraging the individual to identify with the products or services they consume. Nonetheless, the perceived status and acceptance that advertising purports to deliver is both illusive and transitory.

In advertising imagery the models become objectified, degraded and consumable throw-aways in a disposable culture. Their humanity and sense of self is lost in the process of selling product. My work seeks to redress this imbalance and as such the style and use of colour are important aspects of my practice.